The Fire Fist
by RebelzHeart
Summary: In which Ace's ship was shot down by the Tenryuubito, and he ends up joining the Revolutionary Army.
1. Chapter 1

Ace _swears_ he's never been in this much pain anymore, though for some reason he can't remember a damn thing.

 _He vaguely calls an explosion, and the world exploding around him._

"Ah, you're up." The girl next to him glanced over, and readjusted the cool towel on his forehead. "How do you feel?"

 _Sinking, trying to scream, air escaping his lungs and water filling his lungs_ fast _..._

"Where am I?" Ace demanded, sitting up.

She shoved him back down again. "Secret, but we're not the bad guys, if that's what you're worried about."

"Why am I here?"

 _Flames licking the boat, frantically trying to get rid of them..._

"You nearly died." She shrugged, as though it were completely normal to just randomly rescue some kid from dying. "Lucky for you we were in the area, or else you'd be fish food by now. We'll send you back to that island that you came from, alright?"

"No," Ace shook his head, and swatted her arm off of his chest, something strong and vaguely _empty_ sitting in his gut. "Just drop me off at the next stop."

She offered him a curious look, a slightly amused smile pulling at her lips before she asked, "What will you do?"

"Find a noble," Ace decided, shrugging, "Rob him blind."

She laughed at that, loud and uncaring of how it sounded. "As awesome as that sounds," She grinned at him, and Ace wondered if he should invite her to join him, (she seemed quite fond of the idea,) "That's not a very good way to live your life."

"I'll buy a boat," Ace responded firmly, "And I'll travel the world and look for answers."

The girl's eyes sharpened, and she sat down next to Ace's legs, crossing one over the other so that she had room. Ace retaliated by kicking her, and she just laughed again. "Answers to what?" She asked curiously, poking his foot.

 _Should I live?_

"I don't know." It kind of hurt to admit it, though Ace wasn't quite sure why. "Just... answers. I'll know it when I see it."

She snorted at that, wryly responding, "That doesn't seem like such a good base to build off of."

Ace scowled. "I'll do just fine." He sulked defensively.

"Right." She flicked his forehead, and he batted her hand away, still scowling. "Well, you do you, I guess."

Ace stuck his tongue out, feeling a bit childish but ever so slightly vindictive. "And what are you doing?"

Her features brightened at that, light and happy, ( _I want that,_ Ace thought, something that _wanted_ swelling up in his chest,) and responded, "I'm going to help create a world where people can be free."

 _That's awesome,_ Ace thought.

"That's stupid." He said.

She rolled her eyes, and then cocked an eyebrow, trying to appear more mature than she was. "How so?" She asked, leaning forwards.

"It just is." He knew that he sounded childish, but Ace couldn't really find a better answer than that.

Her face flushed bright red, and she flew up, hands slamming against her hips as she snapped, "Why can't everyone be free?"

 _"If I got my hands on him, I'd chain him up and hope he'd never see the light of day."_

(Were these vague little things in his mind memories?)

"Some people just can't be free." Ace responded.

 _Someone like you may as well rot forever in a cell._

"That's stupid," The girl snapped, voice harsh and icy. "Why can't we all be equal?"

Ace looked down at his hands, and shrugged, unsure but feeling, somewhere in the hollow of his chest, that he was _below_ , (below what, he wasn't quite sure. Everything? Everyone? Other people?), and knowing that if he were below, then he couldn't quite be free or equal to anybody.

"I don't know." He snapped, admitting it for the second time that day, feeling a bit annoyed with himself for saying so but somehow relieved that he could be honest about it.

"If you don't know, then how could it be true?" The girl demanded, leaning forwards so much that her nose almost touched Ace's.

He shoved her face away with his hands, turning his head to the side so that he wasn't looking at her. "I just _feel_ it." He retorted, his face burning with embarrassment at the illogical answer.

She crossed her arms over her chest, jutting out her chin as her eyes flashed. Ace noticed a smear of dirt right beside her nose as her nostrils flared. "So you think that you're above the rest of us mere humans?" She demanded, voice cold and filled with irritation.

Ace shook his head. "It's..." _It's the opposite._ He pulled his shoulders up to his ears and looked down, pulling his hands away from Koala's face.

She stared at him, long and hard, and then sighed, flopping down to sit beside him. "We're equal." She spoke firmly, as though saying it like that would just automatically make it true.

Ace shrugged, still refusing to look at her. "How do you know that?" He demanded, mirroring her words from before. "What proof do you have?"

"Look at me," Her voice was still strong and solid, and Ace couldn't help but straighten and stare at her. "What makes us different?"

"You're a girl." Ace quipped, a weak attempt to avoid the subject.

She rolled her eyes. "Are girls better than boys?"

He frowned, "I don't think so."

"Are boys better than girls?"

He shook his head.

"Then is that it? Is that all that makes us different?"

"You're..." _Better? How?_

"Human." She ruffled his hair, and laughed, the moment of seriousness fading, though Ace could still feel a bit of the tension there, lurking just beneath the surface of her sunny smile. "All humans are created equal, and we're both human. So we're equal, okay?"

"Okay," Ace responded, something in his chest yearning for it to be true even though he still didn't quite get it.

"Awesome." She grinned at him, wide and full, and stuck her hand out. "I'm Koala."

Ace grabbed the hand, and tried to think hard about what his name was.

 _A voice screaming on the banks, broken and shrill,_

"Ace."

* * *

 **A/N:** So I think I'll do something like I'll update this and the Gentleman on the same days, and they'll just sort of run parallel to each other. (The Gentleman is following this universe, following Sabo as a Whitebeard Pirate.) Sorry this was a bit short, it was more just to introduce the concept than anything else.


	2. Chapter 2

**Reply to Guest:** Really, there are other fics with Revoluntionary!Ace? Can you tell me about them? As for abandoning this, I probably won't.

* * *

They fall into a comfortable type of routine. Ace tries to escape. Hack catches him. Koala yells at him. He acts like a petulant child. (Which, really, he is.) They fight. They yell. Then they talk as though it never happened, happy and friends again. It's a bit strange, but it works for them, so none of the Revolutionaries really question the odd trio that the three begin forming.

It seems obvious to the others that as soon as the strange boy with the burns and without any memories will probably be partners with the girl that wears color as thought it might vanish any moment will probably be partners. Hack, their disgruntled babysitter, seems to have gotten quite attached, though he'll never admit it.

Then the day comes where Ace's injuries heal ( _"Finally," he laughs, shaking his arms out as the nurse glares at him, "I'm free!"_ ) and Koala kind of wonders if he wants to leave, but Ace shrugs and says, half jokingly and half serious, that he's been at the Revolutionary Base for as long as he could remember (she swats him for that stupid joke and he laughs, ducking away), so he supposes he could stay for a little while.

Ace prefers fighting to reading, and his fists to his lips, and though Koala yells that they need knowledge and cunning as well, part of her agrees.

(The part of her that's wild and free and loves the ride the wind and the sea and gaze at the sky for hours on end, but can't sit still to save her life and would laugh if she saw a noble's home burn down.)

"You're sloppy," Hack comments as they spar, ducking with grace and smoothly raising an arm to block Ace's punch. "This fighting technique moves with brute force, as though you're expecting to fight something more powerful and larger than you. You need to work on your flexibility," He pulled on Ace's arm and flipped him onto his back, "and learn to fight targets of all sizes."

"My fighting technique is just fine," Ace grumbles, but after watching Koala spar with Hack, smooth movements and dodging with grace, using the situation to her advantage when Hack flips her over, he reluctantly asks Hack for some pointers.

Hack grins at Ace, wide and proud and understanding as he notes that he can only teach Ace Fishman Karate, and if he wants to learn other styles, then he can check with someone else.

"It's alright," Ace responded, shuffling into a simple stance. "I'll just try to learn everything and go with whatever works for me."

It's a crude way of doing it, but it works, so Koala doesn't really comment or try to argue.

Koala herself is a little bit the same, sucking up everything like a sponge whenever she can (someone will step into the room and instantly Koala will be asking them to teach her something, _anything_ , because she's long since learned that knowledge is power) but she wants to master Fishman Karate, whereas Ace just wants to be good at fighting.

He doesn't care much for finesse or grace, but Koala enjoys watching him fight all the same.

She enjoys fighting him even more than just watching though, because while you can learn from watching, it doesn't quite match up to the thrill and adrenaline that comes with fighting.

"Nice move," She'd note as she flipped and wrapped her legs around her neck, like she'd seen another girl do in a spar. "Did you learn it from Ai?"

"Nah, from Ayumi." Ace jerked his head back purposely fell backwards, sending both of them smashing against the mats. "Did you learn that one from Genta?"

Koala snorted at that despite the way that her back was buzzing with pain, her legs having loosened from the shock of it. "Genta's fighting style's like yours, all muscle and bits and pieces of moves. It's from Mitsu, he works with flexibility, see?" She didn't wait for an answer before leaping up and twisting her legs around his arms as she punched him.

Ace's head jerked to the side and he nodded, though his expression seemed torn between being angry at being hit and impressed at the move. "I'm not flexible at all." He groaned, completely honest in admitting it as he flipped backwards and twisted his legs, bringing his knees to her chest and kicking her off as he locked his hands onto her wrists and used her momentum to land on his feet. "Do you know what to do?"

"Yeah, I'll show you a few stretches later." Koala gripped his wrists while he was holding hers and used the opportunity to kick his legs out from under him. "I like to do them while I read, but you should probably just do them before you start sparring or something, to make sure you don't pull a muscle."

"I will," Ace promised, and they went back to sparring breathlessly, too tired and feisty and energetic to gather up enough breath to speak.

* * *

It was, the same, a comfortable little schedule, Koala reading while Ace ate, sometimes trying to read but almost always giving up, too frustrated to summon the patience, them sparring, sometimes watching others spar, and Hack there, teaching them, following them like a ghost and sighing at their antics.

Part of Koala loved it, the absolute freedom, how each day she could choose how to live her life, how to carry on, but another part of her felt sick to the stomach, thinking about how she was wasting her time here while others were still suffering in captivity.

"It's called Survivor's Guilt," Hack agreed grimly, tipping his head back and closing his eyes, tired, but not because of Koala's presence, like he usually was (and teased them about). "It's where you think that, basically, you shouldn't be happy."

Koala wrapped her arms around her knees and nodded. "Isn't it wrong, though?" She asked, her voice a faded whisper as she poked a scab forming on her shin. "There are so many people who need to be saved, and I'm content here, doing nothing."

"But you aren't content." Hack leveled Koala with an unimpressed stare and continued, "If you were content, we wouldn't be here, talking about this."

Koala dipped her head forwards, conceding to his point, and then she asked softly, "Then, it's okay?"

"It's not," Hack frowned, ruffling Koala's hair, eyes unconsciously flickering to the stamp of the Sun Pirates on her back. "You deserve to be happy, Koala."

Koala buried her face in her knees, arms tensing around her legs. "So do the other people who became slaves." She said it uncertainly, like it was an argument but it didn't make much sense as one.

"That's true." Hack hummed, unsure of just quite what to say. "But if you're unhappy, then it does nothing to help them."

"If I'm happy, it does nothing to help them, either." Koala pointed out, lifting her face ever so slightly to glance at Hack, as though daring him to argue with her.

"Which is better, Koala?" Hack asked. "To live a life of joy, or to live a life of sorrow?"

Koala closed her eyes, and lowered her head again. "...Okay." She whispered into her arms, thoughtful and knowing but still not fully understanding. "I get it, now."

Hack ruffled her hair and smiled at her. "You will," he responded, as close to an agreement as they could come without Hack needing to lie.

Koala made a sound in the back of her throat that was half a laugh, half a sigh, and she conceded, "I will." She nodded, raising her head, the words coming out like a vow as she repeated, " _I will."_

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** Wow, I'm sleepy. I honestly have no idea what I just wrote, how, or why, but here's to hoping that it turned out okay anyways.


End file.
